ASEE K-12 Workshop

I've been to a decent number of conferences mostly thanks to my involvement in ACS as an undergrad.  One of the cool things about being a TigersTeach scholar at Clemson is that I am going to be able to go to more conferences for professional development.

I've already been to my first of the bunch - the 2013 American Society for Engineering Education Annual Conference.  Only one other cohort member attended the conference with me, so it was a pretty special honor.  We attended a K-12 Workshop on integrating engineering into all types of classes as pre-service teachers.  We were able to attend many sessions throughout the day and got some awesome free stuff.  (Or, as Michael Scott would say "SWAG: stuff we all get.")

My favorite session was one on integrating robotics into the curriculum.  LEGO partners with universities (I think mainly in the northeast) to create these initiatives.  We were lucky enough to get to play with some LEGOs at the conference - aquatic ones!  This website gives way more information on the program.

This is my game face.  We had to build a robot that could make a figure 8 in the water faster than any other robot.  We were definitely champions.

We also attended a session on how to use items found in the home to create engineering opportunities for students.  We were able to peek into a toaster to see just how the knob that adjusts for time/darkness really adjusts.  I never knew that it lowered some bar inside the toaster.  Honestly I thought it was the equivalent of an egg timer.  Not the case!  I was particularly into this session as the speakers were representatives from Michigan Tech.  Hello to my UP pals!

My hair was really looking superb that day.

It was a pretty good day overall.  It was tough to get much out of the conference, though, as pre-service teachers.  I mean, I don't really think I had enough training at that point to really think about applying the stuff I was seeing to the classroom.  I will say, though, that I have been thinking about it more lately as we recently had another scholar dinner and I and the other cohort member had to present to the group stuff that we learned at the conference.  Engineering is everywhere.  Integration of the sciences is here.

Atlanta was a really nice place to have the conference I think.  Before this day I had never actually gotten out of the car/airport in the city before, so I did do just a tad of sightseeing at lunch.

I think Atlanta is pretty big into the Olympics.  Crazy to think that 1996 was 17 years ago.  You'd never know it in this city.

Centennial Olympic Park

I too take pride in the Olympics.  I think I've got my form down.